Me Me Me

I’m heading off to Burbank this morning to tape two episodes of the TV show INSIDER EXCLUSIVE, hosted by Steve Murphy.  I’m going to be on with famed criminal defense attorney Thomas Messerau. It seems like an odd-pairing to me. I feel like I should say that I am not guilty and let him do all the talking.  Past authors on Steve’s  show include Michael Connelly, Danielle Steele,  Linda Fairstein, Joseph Wambaugh, David Baldacci, Scott Turow and Jonathan Kellerman, so I am in good company. A few weeks back, I was a guest on Steve’s syndicated radio show and had a great time, so I’m sure things will work out.

Sorry I haven’t been around — jet-lag and technology woes have worked against me. Two days before I left for Europe, my desktop computer crashed. While I was away, my wife reported that my wireless home network crumbled, my Tivo locked up, and the brakes on my car failed. The day I got home, the power adapter for my laptop burned out (better then than on the trip!) and my wife’s laptop belly-flopped. I have spent the last few days fixing all of that…and myself, too (I really got nailed by jet-lag). And yesterday was my birthday, so I took a day off to rest up.

I have since ordered a new desktop computer, a new laptop for my wife, a new power cord for my laptop, reset my router (and added Range Expander to the system), and took my car into the shop. Everything should be humming  along again in the next few days. I’m even beginning to feel like myself again.  But the price-tag for all of those repairs/purchases is going  to be pretty steep. I’d better get to work!

Today I met with the casting director on a new movie/pilot I am working on, paid bills, sorted through the accumulated mail (email and snail-mail),  read two scripts for proposed Action Concept projects, and took a ton of clothes into the dry cleaner. Exciting, huh?

Which has left me with nothing really to say for the blog. I’ll be back soon, I’m sure.

I’m back in L.A…and feeling the full wallop of jet-lag. My last day two days in Sweden were  rough — I got some kind of awful stomach bug that nearly sidelined me completely. As it was, I didn’t eat and hardly slept for 24 hours…and no sooner did I recover from that, I had to get up at 3 a.m. to make a 6 a.m. flight home.  Ugh.

Other than that,  I had a great time in Stockholm working with writer-producers, network execs, and studio development folks from Holland,  Norway, Belgium and Sweden.  I love these "cross-cultural" exchanges…I certainly learn a lot from the experience and I hope the others do, too.

I’ve been surprised to learn that often American television shows do better than the locally-produced programs, despite  the language and cultural differences. Production values play a part, of course, but I believe the success is due to the power of  franchise in American television shows. Our series  tend to have  concepts so distinct that they are clear whether the characters are speaking French, German, or Swahili. Look at CSI, MONK, LAW & ORDER, HOUSE…the concepts and characters are so strong, you can immediately grasp what the shows are about regardless of where you come from.

I also think American shows do so well  because of the four act structure, something that’s missing from virtually all European TV shows. The four-act structure creates a narrative drive that’s simply missing from most European shows that I’ve seen.  All you need to do is spend ten minutes watching a German or Swedish cop show and the difference is clear.

And it probably also has something to  do with the reliable consistency of U.S. shows…regardless of the series, viewers know that they are going to get the same show every week, only different. You know what you are going to get from CSI…the stories may change, but it’s essentially the same show week after week, year after year.

My job on this trip — along  with William  Rabkin and Matt Witten — was  to introduce the European writers/producers/execs to the principles behind creating and serving a franchise, developing stories within the four-act structure, and maintaining the consistency of a series. The people we worked with embraced the ideas we discussed and were very enthusiastic about applying the principles so that they can be more competitive both in their  own countries and internationally.

Much to my surprise, it turns out that London was more of a paradise for books than Hay-on-Wye was.  I went a little crazy…and sent back two boxes of books to Los Angeles from my binges at Foyles, Murder One, and a bunch of other  bookshops. I also went into a frenzy buying DVD boxed sets  of British TV shows, like the complete  series of THE SWEENEY, which is worth the purchase  price for the extras alone. I had to restrain myself from buying the complete SAINT and RETURN OF THE SAINT boxed sets, too. 

Yesterday morning,  I finally stopped my shopping spree.  Some production personnel from Germany flew in from Cologne to meet with me and go over production details on my movie/pilot, then  we took a long walk in the cold and rain through the city. Last night I got some take-out Chinese, sat in my hotel room, and worked on my MONK book.  I would have liked to take in a show while I was here, but there just wasn’t time…and it would have felt a little odd going alone.

In an hour, I am getting on a flight to Stockholm and next Saturday, finally, I will be returning home. Three weeks is too long to be away from my family.